The 14th
Amendment has done more for individual American citizens than disenfranchised
minority groups, and it is unfortunate because it was in the interests of displaced
Africans by which granted them citizenship. The essence of the 14th
Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is so comprehensive that it has
universalized basic rights while ameliorating the horrific American pastime of
slavery.
The University of California Davis
Medical school in the Bakke Case demonstrated how, in efforts to rectify past
racial discrimination, no one wants to take responsibility. Justice Matthew O.
Tobriner states: “ The Fourteenth Amendment that served as the basis for the
requirement that elementary and secondary schools be ‘compelled’ to integrate
should now be turned around to forbid graduate schools from voluntary seeking
that very objective.” (Ball p. 61) Tobriner seems to be harping on the efforts
of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to integrate schools. Interestingly enough many
of the cases preceding Brown v. Board of Education (1954) dealt with higher
education admissions (law and medical schools). With the periodic triumph of
these cases, momentum of resistance developed and Plessy v. Ferguson separate but
equal clause was finally overturned. What Tobriner believes to be a shame is
that the spirit of the Brown v. Board of Education is going down the drain, all
because a few individuals believe they are entitled to a higher-education.
Unfortunately, college in this country is a privilege not a right. And for a
long time blacks were denied access into these honorable institutions we call
the University. This literal white privilege has been part of college
admissions, private and public, for a long time. And it seems that the rights
of an individual (of a majority group), is becoming more important than the
rights to a historically disenfranchised
minority group.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 comes from a long history of racial justice. And surprisingly the roots of
its language stems from the semantics of the Bill of Rights. While slavery was
still well in place, Americans fought the tyrannical power of British Colonists
and after declaring independence drew up the Constitution. The Bill of Rights,
the first ten amendments, was created in order to protect citizens from such
Intolerable Acts as the Quartering Act, and no Taxation without representation.
These first ten amendments addressed the needs of Americans.
The Civil War was a war to end
slavery. And legislation which would follow was created to protect the rights
of black people against the hegemony of the southern Confederacy. The 13th,
14th, and 15th Amendments gave black people citizenship,
the vote, and total abolishment of America’s peculiar institution. Similar to
the way in which the Bill of Rights protected Americans from a tyrannical
federal government, the 13th, 14th, and 15th
protected black people from racist state power, especially in the south, where
Jim Crow Laws ran rampant. And then finally Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 and Brown v. Board of Education 1954, would protect individuals from
local, state, and federal policies denying citizens “regardless of race, color,
or national origin” their basic human rights. What seemed like a series of laws
that had black people in mind, at its center, would transform and become the
grounds by which disgruntled white folks would illustrate their custody over
the few and far in between college seats across the nation. Lawyers for Bakke,
“sued on the grounds that both the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection
clause ‘Nor shall any state…. Deny to any person within its jurisdiction the
equal protection of the law.’ And the title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act,
the very same Title VI used by university administrators to justify preferential
admissions prohibited such race- based preferential admissions procedures.”
(Ball p. 7)
This use of the Fourteenth
Amendment did not end in the Bakke case, it would also apply to what we now
know as the Michigan Affirmative Action Cases. Things would not look good for
black folks wanting to attend law school at the University of Michigan “The law
school’s inability to meet the standards of constitutional statutory review for
its affirmative action program led the district court, via Judge Freidman’s opinion,
to conclude that the affirmative action policy violated the equal protection
clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.”
(Perry 75)
There were however Judges who did
believe that the fruits of affirmative action was priceless. “O’ Connor
responded for the majority that the Fourteenth Amendment’s ‘Equal protection
clause does not prohibit the law school’s narrowly tailored use of race is
admissions decisions to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational
benefits that flow from a diverse student body.” (Perry 146)
Much of what created such a
permanence among white students was the notion of white privilege, Time Wise
illustrates this interesting phenomenon that occurs amid white students.
“Although not every white person’s story is the same as mine, the simple truth
is that any white person of color, and as such received directly the
privileges, the head start, the advantages of whiteness as a matter of course.
This goes for all whites not merely some, but all.” (Wise 13)
“Whiteness, as these stories in part demonstrate, is about
never being really out of place, about having access and, more to the point,
the sense that wherever you are, you belong, and won’t be likely to encounter
much resistance to your presence. Despite my lousy test scores and mediocre
grades, no one ever thought to suggest, for example, that I had somehow gotten
into Tulane because of some form of ‘preferential treatment’ or as a result of
standards being lowered. Students of color though, with similar grades and
scores regularly had to content with this sort of thing, prescribed to be the
less qualified beneficiaries of affirmative action.” (Wise 44)
“People of color can’t really avoid white spaces, and if
they do it’s probably because they live in the poorest areas, and are the most
destitute persons of color around: after all, having much the opportunity in
the job market or in education typically requires a fairly high level of
interaction with white folks, since so much of the power within either setting
resides in white hands. (Wise 47)
Wise
emphasizes the point that the reason why many white students file law suits is
because they feel privileged. And that years of discrimination is mutually
exclusive of the law. Everyone attending college should start on a clean slate,
and should be judged by the content of their character and not the color of
their skin. Unfortunately the law historically has not been mutually exclusive
of social constructs such as race. And that race has played a part in such
pieces of legislation as the 3/5 compromise. The spirit of the 14th
Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act was to make sure that everyone
was treated fairly. And in order to do so, white students must make room for
their colleagues who, may have been qualified generations ago, but was denied
entrance due to Jim Crow Laws. Sure, white students may not get into the
college of their first choice, but this doesn’t mean that they are not going to
college. These students in fact get accepted in greater numbers than blacks,
and go on to have an easier time landing a job. Call it whatever you want:
achievement gap, white privilege, reverse discrimination, whichever way you
slice it there is social divide along lines of race, one in which becomes
difficult to resolve. This dilemma however, as difficult as it may seem, often
times is remedied on the college campus, where the magic word diversity becomes
the byproduct of affirmative action. Students get to meet other students who
may not be of the same gender, race, religion, or economic class, and forge
bonds that may seem incredible. It is the conversation and actions of these
young people, harmonizing with one another that will determine if affirmative
action is worthwhile. And sometimes moral authority trumps legality.
Bibliography
Ball, Howard The Bakke Case published by University of Kansas 2000
Perry, Barbara A. Michigan Affirmative Action Cases published by the University of Kansas 2007
Wise, Tim White Like Me: Reflections From a Privileged Son published by Soft Skull Press
New York 2005
Bibliography
Ball, Howard The Bakke Case published by University of Kansas 2000
Perry, Barbara A. Michigan Affirmative Action Cases published by the University of Kansas 2007
Wise, Tim White Like Me: Reflections From a Privileged Son published by Soft Skull Press
New York 2005
